The One Who Got Away

A Story by Nami

The calendar mocks me, each day a fresh layer of dust settling on the memory of us. It's been a month, a purgatory of unanswered prayers and tear-stained pillows. My voice is hoarse from whispering pleas to a God who seems to have misplaced his hearing aid. "Please," I rasp, the word a desperate claw reaching for an indifferent sky, "bring him back."

But the silence roars louder than any storm. Every beat of my heart feels like a betrayal, a rhythmic reminder of a future stolen. Letting go feels like severing a limb, the phantom ache a constant throb. Sleep offers no escape, dreams a cruel replay of laughter and stolen kisses, the waking world a slap of harsh reality.

He's a ghost who haunts even my moments of solitude. The echo of his name lingers on my tongue, a forbidden prayer I can't seem to unlearn. Even the silence between us screams volumes; the unspoken apologies, the unanswered questions, the love I couldn't contain overflowing in a tide of rejection.

The irony is a cruel joke. Here I am, loving him with a ferocious intensity, a silent symphony playing only for him to hear, and he, the conductor, pushing away the very melody that could bring harmony to his soul.

A selfish part of me wishes him happiness, a love that doesn't come with the baggage of my broken heart. But a darker, more desperate part whispers a silent prayer laced with venom. May the next love he finds be a mirror reflecting the pain he inflicted, a love that dances just out of reach, a constant reminder of what he threw away.

Yet, beneath the anger and despair, a flicker of something else remains. A sliver of hope, fragile as a butterfly's wing, that someday the ache will dull, the tears will dry, and I will emerge from the wreckage, a woman stitched back together with the threads of resilience.

For now, I exist in this twilight zone of love and loss, clinging to the fading embers of a love story that never quite caught fire. But maybe, just maybe, the ashes will hold the seeds of a new beginning, a love story where I choose myself, a love that finally chooses me back.

But when, oh when, will he choose someone who loves him genuinely? Will he ever realize that the one who truly loved him, the one who still does even after his departure, was right here all along, waiting with a love so vast it could have filled the emptiness he carry within?